300,000 Kindle 2s Sold To Date
Amazon's Kindle 2, which first shipped in late February, is selling at roughly double the rate of the first generation device, says a source close to Amazon. Approximately 300,000 of the Kindle 2s have been shipped to date, suggesting Amazon …
Context & Ripple Effects
The Kindle 2's run rate is the strongest datapoint yet that Amazon's e-reader business is compounding: in February, Citi estimated Amazon had sold around 500,000 Kindles across all of 2008, projecting the line into a $1.2 billion business — and now a source close to Amazon says roughly 300,000 second-generation units have shipped in under two months, at about double the original Kindle's pace.
The unconfirmed shipment figure lands during a bruising stretch for Amazon's consumer image: an acknowledged 'ham-fisted' error stripped sales rankings from gay- and lesbian-themed books, and users have flagged the Kindle 2's fuzzy on-screen fonts. Strong unit velocity gives the company something concrete to point at beyond apology statements.
First-order effects
- If the source-close-to-Amazon figure holds, Kindle 2 shipments of ~300,000 in six-plus weeks imply an annualized pace well above what the entire Kindle line did in 2008, directly validating Citi's $1.2 billion revenue projection for the franchise.
Second-order effects
- Every incremental Kindle deepens Amazon's control of both the device and the bookstore behind it, pressuring rival readers like Sony's to compete on selection and price rather than hardware alone — the dynamic OUPblog flagged when arguing Kindle and Sony e-reader sales were already beating estimates.
Third-order effects
- Publishers face a growing single buyer with proprietary device-store lock-in, shifting negotiating leverage over e-book pricing and rights toward Amazon as its installed base scales.
The trend: Dedicated e-readers are crossing from early-adopter gadget to volume consumer category, with Amazon's integrated device-plus-bookstore model defining how the market consolidates.